Friday Focus: The Friday 56 and Book Beginnings

 It's Friday . . . time to share book excerpts with:

• Book Beginnings on Fridays hosted by Rose City Reader, where bloggers share the first sentence or more of a current read, as well as initial thoughts about the sentence(s), impressions of the book, or anything else that the opening inspires.  
• The Friday 56 hosted by Freda's Voice, where you grab a book and turn to page 56 (or 56% of an eBook), find one or more interesting sentences (no spoilers), and post them.

Today I'm featuring a recent blog tour read, Death on a Deadline by Joyce St. Anthony, the second book in the Homefront News mystery series. The excerpts shared are from an eBook provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

 

 

Beginning:  "Clark Gable is coming to Progress and will be appearing at our war bond drive," Ava Dempsey said. "I have it on good authority."

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56% of eBook:  There was a tangled thread of something tickling the back of my brain that I couldn't quite unravel. Whatever it was, Louise wouldn't talk about it. Neither would Kirk. I'd talk to Ken tomorrow and see if he remembered anything. And then I'd talk to Kirk again. I only hoped he'd be sober when I did.

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My thoughts:  At its heart, Death on a Deadline is an engaging story that captures life on the home front in Progress, Pennsylvania during the second world war. Readers get a realistic sense of the importance of women in keeping businesses and families intact in the face of uncertainty. Scandal and murder brought to the sleepy small town by outsiders add to the story's appeal, making this a delightful series that cozy mystery lovers and historical fiction fans will enjoy.

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From GoodReads: Editor-in-chief Irene Ingram pencils in her newest mystery in Joyce St. Anthony’s second captivating Homefront News mystery, perfect for fans of Anne Perry and Rhys Bowen.

As World War II rages in Europe and the Pacific, the small town of Progress is doing its part for the soldiers in the field with a war bond drive at the annual county fair. Town gossip Ava Dempsey rumors that Clark Gable will be among the participating stars. Instead of Gable, the headliner is Freddie Harrison, a B-movie star. When Freddie turns up dead in the dunk tank, Irene Ingram, editor-in-chief of The Progress Herald, starts chasing the real headline.

There are plenty of suspects and little evidence. Ava’s sister Angel, who was married to the dead actor, is the most obvious. The couple had argued about his affair with the young starlet Belinda Fox, and Angel was the last person to see Freddie alive.

Irene discovers there’s more than one person who might have wanted Freddie dead. As Irene draws on her well-honed reporter’s instincts to find the killer—nothing is what it seems in Progress, and now her own deadline could be right around the corner.

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This Friday Focus: The Friday 56 & Book Beginnings post was originally composed and/or compiled and published by Catherine for the blog, bookclublibrarian.com.  It cannot be republished without attribution.